“When you have a population of street-based youth in a wealthy area, there’s going to be conflict and tension," said Jacqueline Boyd, a co-founder of Project Fierce Chicago, a new organization aimed at creating a long-term homeless living facility for LGBTQ youth.

Boyd's criticisms stemmed around the Lakeview neighborhood specifically, an area both known for its large and affluent LGBTQ population and its recent spate of derisive attitudes towards the actions and presence of LGBTQ youth in the neighborhood (especially those of color).

While the majority of LGBTQ services are in the Lakeview area, there is a dearth of resources on the South and West Sides of the city. Especially relevant is the more than 15,000 homeless youth in Chicago.

Todd Diederich’s work is robust. His passion as a photographer can be measured by the heft of each of his images. Subjects and scenes tell a complete story in each photograph, never leaving room for doubt in their liveliness or authenticity.

He captures a part of Chicago far from the sterilized energy of downtown—one that is young and potent.

One of his many images, shown left, is on display at "Chicago Style," a new salon-style group exhibition at David Weinberg Photography.

"Chicago Style" features 34 Chicago photographers "whose eclectic works," according to the gallery, reflect "the nuanced and refined style of the stormy, husky and brawling city of big shoulders." It runs through February 15, 2014.

Diederich hails from Brookfield and attended Columbia College on scholarship before leaving the downtown art school in 2003. Afterward, he left the city entirely, spending time in Athens, Georgia, a city known for its extensive arts and culture community.

Chicago writer and performer Samantha Irby is not obsessed with her body. She knows it for what it is, and keeps going anyway.

“Listen homie, that thing that you secretly hate about my body? Don’t worry, I hate it, too. With every fiber in my weird, fibrous breasts," she writes in her essay "Forest Whitaker’s Neck," from her recent book, "Meaty: Essays by Samantha Irby."

In the essay, she recounts a comment from a sort-of ex while in bed together. At the time she wasn’t sure about the extent of their relationship, and his random comment—“you have the tiniest nipples I have ever seen”—certainly did not help.

“Every mark, every scar, every scratch, every flaw: I’ve seen it, documented it, cried over it, and tried to hide it. Would it kill you to pretend it isn’t there?” she writes.

Womens' relationships with men are not like our relationships with ourselves.

“I forgot how easy it is to be young here,” a friend said to me over the holiday weekend. He was in town visiting his mother, and he made the statement in assessment of a night out.

It’s true.

In Chicago, it is easy to find quality entertainment, cheap drinks, delicious food, and relatively affordable living and transportation options, especially compared to other cities.

His comments reminded me of another from last year. A friend visited the city to see whether or not she wanted to move here. In the end, she chose New York. In terms of her career, it made sense. But did Chicago not provide enough of a challenge? Does it matter if Chicago is “easy” compared to other cities?

Well, for one, who said that Chicago is easy?

Earlier this summer, another friend said, “Everyone’s just dying,” when explaining one of his reasons for wanting to move out of the city.

I joined Facebook during the summer before my freshman year of college and nearly every photo I used as a profile picture was a selfie.

Back then, we didn’t have a name for them. Some people referred to them as 'angled shots' or 'MySpace photos,' for their ubiquity on that social networking site. The chorus of 'vanity' and 'deception' was as evident then as it is now. People were upset by others’ desire to control their visual narrative.

One day, an old high school friend left a comment on my Facebook wall asking why I could not just find a decent photograph of myself that I did not take.

Last week, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart went on a hilarious rant about his disdain for Chicago-style deep dish pizza, and Chicagons reacted not so much in anger, but dismay. How could anyone deny deep dish pizza? It’s our greatest culinary export!

A couple days later, Mayor Rahm Emanuel sent two deep dish pizzas covered in anchovies to the comedian. “Jon, deep dish with dead fish. Love, Rahm,” reads a handwritten note.

And while the stunt was a welcome reprieve from the city's more pressing affairs, it also reminded me of Chicagoans’ typical reaction to outsiders that make misinformed judgements about the city.

The truth is, people who don’t know Chicago will probably not like it.

What makes for a great neighborhood bar? To me, its main quality exists in comfort.

Are the drinks priced well? Are the seats comfortable? Are the people more than decent? A great neighborhood bar — a great dive bar in particular — is especially enjoyable on weekdays, when raucousness is abandoned for quiet and a night cap. Expressions like 'pleasant,' 'decent' and 'just right' should be used liberally.

In college, I lived in Chicago's Lincoln Park. I remember going to a bar a block away from me once, hoping to find an alternative to treking to other parts of the city for a night out. I handed the doorman my ID, but what should have been a quick once-over became uncomfortable. His stare was equal parts lascivious and questioning, as if saying, ‘You don’t belong here, but I’ll let you in if you’re a good girl and ask nicely.’

I never went back.

“All we’ve got in Chicago is a bunch of TV screens and dive bars,” I once said to a friend while leaving the Belmont 'El' stop. “And I hate it.”

Fashion is one of the last major industries to publicly and profoundly act as a system of discrimination and exclusivity. And Kanye West – despite his strange and inaccurate comments comparing his fiance, Kim Kardashian, to the FLOTUS, Michelle Obama – has recently come out with comments that touch on the industry's perpetual exclusion.

In an interview with Ryan Seacrest on KIIS-FM, he said, “What I want to create isn’t about black and white, but the reason why I’m not able to create what I want to create is about being black, and is about classism.”

The music industry works differently. It is not less racist, but it is more inclusive. It is driven more by profit (allowing for a more diverse array of voices) than by inclusiveness or exclusiveness.